Last June, I celebrated my first blogiversary, went to Vegas, attended my first blogger conference, and had some crazy flying days. Makes me feel busy just thinking about it!! Here is what I wrote about, as a result of that craziness…..

Lots of etiquette! A list of carry-on etiquette, plus reminding passengers to please not grab the seat in front of them.

With several friends taking long trips, I revived my long flight survival guide.

The summer was HOT, so I tried to figure out how to beat the heat and still look professional.

Finally, I realized that it’s not just me: sitting in the back of the plane is actually worse for motion sickness.

And TWO years ago (it amazes me that I can say that) I wrote about my love affair with the pashmina. And this love  continues today!

Happy Friday everyone! Have a great, safe 4th of July weekend.

That first business trip can be so intimidating! What to wear, how to pack it, what toiletries are necessary, surviving long and uncomfortable flights…. So many potential issues! For first trip, five years ago, I was terrified. Starting a new job at a new company is scary enough, but add traveling cross-country to that and I was a nervous wreck. Did I bring the right clothes? What’s it like, renting a car? What if I get sick? What if I get lonely and depressed because I miss my new husband?

Now that I’ve been on the road for five years, I am rarely anxious before a trip. But others are going on their first trip all the time! My goal is to help those people have smooth, efficient, and productive trips. Due to numerous requests, I have put together a page full of tips for the first time business traveler. It is a work in progress, so I will continue to add to it. Check it out, and if you see something that I need to add, please let me know!!

Readers, what were you the most anxious about for your first business trip?

So many people liked hearing about my favorite travel sites and blogs, I wanted to continue the trend. These are four business-related websites that I check daily, whether traveling or at home. After reading their words for so long, I feel like I know these people! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Corporette. If you’ve read my blog for any period of time, you know that Corporette is my favorite blog. I check it religiously every morning to see what fabulous clothing item Kat has found for us, and then throughout the day for her business-related posts. She discusses everything from how to effectively search for a job to how to interact with coworkers to software to make you more efficient. A great resource!

Wall Street Journal’s The Juggle. Trying to figure out how to balance career and home life? The Juggle talks about it all, examining the choices and tradeoffs people make juggling work and family. If you’ve ever felt like you’re the only person who can’t quite seem to get it all together, this site will make you feel less alone.

Daily Worth. Started by Amanda Steinberg and MP Dunleavey in 2009, their goal is to increase the net worth of women. The sad fact is, women still make 30% less than men. Daily Worth aims to simplify complicated financial concepts to make them more accessible, as well as give women a forum to discuss them. I only discovered this site recently, but I already feel better prepared to increase my net worth.

The Art of Non Conformity. This site is part travel, part lifestyle, and part business. But man, can Chris Guillebeau write. And more than that, he makes you feel inspired. He believes that you don’t have to follow the traditional path to happiness, and that your path may in fact be very different from everyone you know. And that’s okay! Every time I read his column I feel ready to go out and follow my dreams. What more can you ask for?

Readers, what are your favorite business/career/money sites?

Building a Business Travel Wardrobe is a new series here on Road Warriorette. The focus will be on the key pieces a woman needs to build a wardrobe that is ideal for travel. Based on the “capsule” wardrobe model, each week will feature an item that is professional, stylish, and that travels well.

A dress is a beautiful thing to own because it makes getting ready in the morning so easy. You don’t have to worry about coordinating skirt to blouse and sweater, or pants and belt and jacket. You just have to accessorize it, pick shoes, and voila. An outfit that is ready to go. The best dresses are even very easy to pack, taking up little room and not wrinkling. And there are so many to choose from!

Some of the same things are important when shopping for dresses that are important when shopping for other travel wardrobe necessities:

• Fit. Because there is little to no layering with a dress, it is important to make sure that it highlights your attributes. Make sure it fits you impeccably.  Have it tailored if it fits well in one place but is too big in another.
• Comfort. Depending on the material, a dress can be the most comfortable clothing item that you own. It can also be the most restrictive. So make sure that when you’re shopping for travel dresses you choose the former.
• Anti-wrinkle. Some dresses won’t wrinkle no matter what you do to them. Those are the best!
• Coordinates with shoes. Dresses are one item that don’t have to be neutral (unless you want them to). But make sure they match with whatever shoes you pack.

If you need a suiting dress, Talbots is my favorite place. In fact, they have a ton of work dresses, period. One of my favorites right now is the Sash Wrap Dress in Navy.

TravelSmith also has some great dresses designed specifically for travel. I really like the Women’s JetSet Twist Dress and the Voyager Knit Faux Wrap Dress.

Banana Republic has some great work dresses, including the 3/4 Faux Wrap Dress.

Other great places for business travel dresses include Ann Taylor, Saks, Macy’s, Dillard’s, and J. Crew.

One caveat about dresses: I don’t recommend that you wear them on actual travel days right now. Due to the TSA security screenings and potential pat downs, wearing a dress could lead to a very uncomfortable situation. But they are still great for travel! They pack small and make getting dressed in the morning easy. What else could you want?

Building a Business Travel Wardrobe is a new series here on Road Warriorette. The focus will be on the key pieces a woman needs to build a wardrobe that is ideal for travel. Based on the “capsule” wardrobe model, each week will feature an item that is professional, stylish, and that travels well.

Finding fabulous separates for business travel is much easier than finding suits. The pants or skirt do not need to match anything other than a top, which allows for more flexibility and a lot more choices. I still recommend that they are in the same neutral “family”, so for example pack a gray skirt with black slacks, or a brown skirt and taupe slacks. It’s best, though not required, that all pairs of shoes match with all bottoms, just in case.

When shopping for business casual clothes for travel, the key elements to look for are very similar to those for suits:

• Neutral color. Neutral bottoms go with the greatest amount of tops. Also, as mentioned above, try to stick to the same color family to make coordinating shoes, blouses, and accessories easier. Look for your most flattering neutral, such as black, gray, brown, taupe, or navy.
• Anti-wrinkle. The last thing you want to do after you’ve been traveling all day is to spend an hour ironing your pants.. When searching for a slacks or a skirt, look for terms like “wrinkle free” or “no iron”.
• Comfort and fit. Make sure that anything you plan to travel in fits you well, and is comfortable to sit in for long periods of time. If those pants are great while you’re standing but make it hard to breathe when you sit, don’t pack them!

Slacks and skirts that are work appropriate and great for travel can be found virtually anywhere. Nordstrom, Talbots, and Banana Republic are my personal favorites. Ann Taylor, TravelSmith, Macy’s, and even Old Navy for those on a budget also have a variety of options.

The whole Theory line from Nordstrom is incredibly cute, well tailored, and perfect for any work situation. I am in love with the Max C Cohesion pants and the Golda – Tailor pencil skirt.

Macy’s has some really great stuff at very reasonable prices. I am digging this black Jones New York pencil skirt (and the top it’s styled with!) for a traditional look,  and the AGB Box Pleat skirt for something unexpected.

For the extremely budget conscious, Old Navy has some fashionable basics for little money. The Essential Wide-Leg Trouser is $29.50 and comes in three colors.

Building a Business Travel Wardrobe is a new series here on Road Warriorette. The focus will be on the key pieces a woman needs to build a wardrobe that is ideal for travel. Based on the “capsule” wardrobe model, each week will feature an item that is professional, stylish, and that travels well.

When building a travel capsule wardrobe, the foundation piece is the suit. It is the clothing item that all of your outfits are built on, and I can’t overstate its importance. When shopping for a suit, don’t settle! There are so many types, colors, and price points out there that I really believe there is something for everyone. If you find something that is close, take it to a tailor so it will be as perfect as possible.

I know that not everyone who travels for work is required to wear a suit, so next week’s post will be on business casual.

The features to look for when searching for a travel suit:

• Neutral color. While a suit needs to look professional, it does not need to be distinctive. It also has to coordinate with different tops, so neutral is best. Look for your most flattering neutral, such as black, gray, brown, taupe, or navy.
• Anti-wrinkle. The last thing you want to do after you’ve been traveling all day is to spend an hour ironing your suit. Of course, you also don’t want to arrive at the office in wrinkled pants and jacket. When searching for a suit look for terms like “wrinkle free” or “no iron”.
• Comfort and fit. Make sure that your suit fits you well, and is comfortable to sit in for long periods of time. It took me a long time to find a suit I could comfortably travel in, but they do exist!
• Multiple pieces. This is standard suit buying advice: look for a suit that has a jacket, pants, skirt, and even a dress. This way you can pack (and buy!) less but still have many different outfits.

Tip: If you need to pack your suit jacket, check out Corporette’s “How To Fold a Suit Jacket” video.

I love the Elie Tahari Exclusive for Nordstrom suits. They come in black and gray, are simple, well priced, well made, and shouldn’t wrinkle. (And I think the Simone pants in the grayish “Chestnut Malange” are so fabulous!) The black version has both pants and a skirt.

TravelSmith has suits designed specifically for travel. Some of their stuff is a little….ahem…..matronly. But they have a few very cute items, and tailoring can help you get a more fitted look.

Talbots has suiting for many sizes, including petite and plus. They also offer several colors of suits with multiple pieces, including skirts, pants, and dresses.

Banana Republic and Ann Taylor often have lovely suits. A word of caution: be careful the skirt isn’t too short.

Suit shopping can be daunting, but it can be done! Once you’ve got your suit in hand, the hardest part of creating a travel capsule wardrobe is over. After that, it’s fun shopping all the time!

Building a Business Travel Wardrobe is a new series here on Road Warriorette. The focus will be on the key pieces a woman needs to build a wardrobe that is ideal for travel. Based on the “capsule” wardrobe model, each week will feature an item that is professional, stylish, and that travels well.

I have shared stories from my first business trip about my issues with light packing. That first trip I brought four separate outfits, all of which required different shoes. I could barely lift my bag, much less put it into the overhead bin. And honestly, there is no need for that.  It’s perfectly acceptable to wear a pair of pants or skirt twice on a trip!

It took me a while to build up my travel wardrobe, especially because I didn’t do it deliberately. I would just buy a dress here, a top there, a pair of pants randomly on sale….. Once I started looking at my travel wardrobe as a cohesive unit, shopping, packing, and getting dressed every morning started getting a lot easier. The first piece of advice I give new business travelers is to pack clothing that matches, and this concept is the basis of the “capsule” wardrobe. I have always been enamored of the capsule wardrobe, since I read Sherry Maysonave’s book Casual Power in college. But until I started traveling for work,  I never actually needed to put it into place.

A capsule wardrobe is built of a collection of timeless pieces inspired by a single neutral color that can be worn together interchangeably. The neutral color can be brown, black, gray, navy, taupe, or something else that works for you. After acquiring the base items – pants, skirt, suit jacket if needed – in your chosen neutral, add coordinating tops, two pairs of shoes, appropriate accessories, and voila! Capsule business travel wardrobe. Of course, once you have your basic wardrobe you can add items to expand your options.

This new series is going to take you through the process of selecting each of the main building blocks for an efficient, easy-to-pack travel wardrobe. When shopping for each item, look for the following characteristics:

Fit. Make sure everything you plan to travel in fits you incredibly well. If something is a bit too tight, or rubs the wrong way, or the snap is broken, you will notice it far more during an 18-hour travel day than during a normal workday.

Comfort. Not only should everything fit perfectly, it should be comfortable to wear. I have a pair of gray pin strip slacks that I love that fit me perfectly, but because they don’t have any stretch in them they just aren’t comfortable to travel in. If you are going to be sitting in a plane for four hours, what you’re wearing must be comfortable.

Color. Obviously, if you’re building a wardrobe everything needs to coordinate. Figure out which neutral is most flattering for you, and then design it around that color. Make sure that any top or accessory you purchase goes well with your chosen neutral.

Building a business travel wardrobe can be work, but once you have all your pieces packing will be a breeze! It’s a relief to know that anything you take on a trip will match, and you will be free to focus on other important things, like getting through security without forgetting your laptop…..

I started traveling for work six weeks after I got married. The Home Warrior and I had been living together over a year, and prior to this job I wasn’t working full time for about a month. And I think the longest we’d ever been apart during our whole relationship was three nights. So we had a lot of together time, and then all of the sudden I was on the road every week. Talk about a huge transition! My first trip was so, so hard. I was gone in California for four nights. I missed my husband, and our dogs, and my house, and my stuff….. It got easier from there, but it took some major trial and error to figure out how to maintain our relationship while apart.

It affects my time when I’m home, too. During busy travel periods, I feel slightly frantic while I’m at home, because there’s usually not enough time to get everything done.  Sometimes I miss out on things that are going on while I’m gone—friends’ birthdays, meetings for organizations that I’m part of, family get togethers. This had made much more careful about how I spend my time and the things I commit to.  I’ve also had to learn how to let the little things go. Some days we won’t eat until after 8pm, or the laundry won’t get done, or I’ll have to bail on a committee meeting. But I make a point to maintain my relationships with my husband, family, and friends. Phone calls, emails, time spent together…. Even though it takes effort to coordinate everything, it is very worth it. Another thing that helps is to take care of some chores while you’re gone. A few things, like paying bills, shopping online for Christmas presents, or doing research about a bathroom remodel (what I’m working on right now) can all be done from your hotel room, and help maintain a sense of normalcy.

There are a few things that have kept me sane, and our marriage solid, during our separations:

• Webcam. Being able to see him (and our dogs) really made a difference, especially that first year. This was almost five years ago, so the webcam was kind of cumbersome, but it was definitely worth it. Now it’s built in to our laptops. Much easier.
• Talking every day. We both have busy schedules, especially when I travel. Home Warrior works long hours, and I am at the office or dinner meetings until late at night. But every day that I am gone, we talk. Without exception. It may not be a long conversation, or we may just have the phone on speaker while we answer email, but we talk every day.
• Emailing or texting throughout the day. Every day when I am at home we email throughout the day, so it makes us feel connected, and normal, to do the same when I am gone.
• Photos. In the early days, I really needed a visual reminder of my home life, so I had a photo collage I kept with me all the time. It had a photo from our wedding and pictures of our dogs. Now that I have an iPhone with photos on it and a lot more pictures on my computer I don’t carry it with me anymore. But it definitely helped that first year.
• Other suggestions. Exercising, pampering myself, and reading my favorite books and magazines always help when I’m feeling homesick.

The first year, I was gone a lot. Corporate meetings, learning my job, traveling around to visit clients…. It all added up.  As time passed, it got easier. Now if I’m going to be away for just a night or two I enjoy it—the nice meals, the maid service, the pampering. Of course if I’m gone for long I miss my husband a lot. And he definitely misses me. In fact, I think that is the hardest thing—knowing that he is sad because I’m gone makes me sad. But overall we are very happy together. In fact, my mom has a running joke about us. We are so happy, she says, because even though we’ve officially been married close to five years, I am gone so much that it’s more like a year and a half. Good one, Mom.

Readers, what are your tips for maintaining relationships while on the road?

When I was researching how to properly pack my underthings, I found a lot of information about what not to do, but not a lot about what to do. (Apparently folding your bras and shoving them into a small pocket is on the “What Not To Do List. Oops.) So I spoke to a friend that works at a local store specializing in  undergarments, and here is her packing advice.

Take nude bras. They work under (almost) everything and you don’t need to pack as many since you can wear them with multiple outfits.  The only reason to wear black is if you’re going to be photographed in a black top (nude will  show from the flash).

Bring non-molded bras. They will travel more easily and take up less space.  Wear the molded bra if you need one of that type, it’s just trickier to pack.  For frequent travelers, I suggest non-molded bras and a pair of silicone nipple covers to give the molded effect without the bulk in your suitcase.

How to pack molded bras. If you do have to pack a molded bra, always leave it spread out, as opposed to stuffing one cup inside the other.  Some people twist the center so they can stack the cups without having to invert one of them.  I’ll admit, I’ve used that method in the past, but it really isn’t good for the bra.  The fabric in the center just isn’t made to do that and the last thing you want when you’re traveling is for the bra to rip.  So, leave them spread out, stacking one on top of the other if needed.  Pack socks, underwear, leggings, or similar items inside the cup to keep their shape.  I usually place them between two stacks of clothes in my suitcase.

Washing your bras. Short trips don’t usually involve washing bras, but I always take a small sample of lingerie wash, just in case.  Any shop that sells lingerie wash should have samples they give away- save them for travel!  The best option is a “rinse free” wash that you just put in the sink, soak the bras, then drain the water.  And be aware of the climate where you’re staying- bras won’t dry overnight in humid climates.

One more option. They make cute lingerie bags that you can pack undies in that have two zippered pouches- one for dirty and one for clean.  I organize my suitcase differently, but it’s one way to keep things a little more, um,  private if your bag gets searched.

Readers, let me know if you have any questions about packing your delicates and I will get answers for you! And as always, additional tips are welcome as well.

A year ago, I had just moved my blog over to Boarding Area, was getting ready for and recovering from my trip to Manila, and preparing for my younger sister’s wedding. It was a busy month! It was also my first month of trying to post every day, so choosing the most important posts from that month is a challenge.  Sorry for the long list, but hopefully you will appreciate some of my early advice….. and rambling.

When reading Long Flight Comfort, it’s not hard to see how anxious I was about the 26 hour flying time to Manila. I tried a lot of things to make the flights bearable, but not all of them were successful. Check out the winners and losers!

I seemed to go through a purse obsession. What am I saying? My life is a purse obsession! Explaining the contents of my purse and what it looks like was a lot of fun. And I am still hunting for my next purse…..

I also went to Chicago for my sister’s bachelorette party and had my most embarrassing travel experience. Sigh. I still cringe when I think about that.

After receiving a question from a reader, I tried broaching the subject of moms who travel for business. That was a hard one!

And finally, one of my favorite topics. I spend a lot of my time here on Road Warriorette coaching people about the best way to get through airport security. Anyone who doesn’t travel often should read this post! Heck, it could be helpful even for those of us who do travel often…..

Thanks for revisiting the past with me!